FishProfiles.com Message Forums

We got a new tank cycled it with zebra danio's per pet co's advise.

than i took my 6 year old to the store last night to pick out a couple fish and of course he picked guppy's. we woke up this morning to one dead guppy with no fin's and another who's fin is half gone. the other 3 look fine.

is there anything we can do?

Zebra Danios are naturally a fin nipping fish. How many Zebras do you have and how big is it? If the tank is big enough and you have less than 6 Zebra Danios you could try adding some more, this helps restrict the nipping to just the Zebras themselves. It might not help though, and you might already have 6 Danios.

we have 5 zebra danio's and an upside down catfish. we have a 10 gallon tank. do you think adding 1 more danio will work? or should we just see what happens and then try fish that do not have long fins?

I don't think the Danios have enough room to swim in a 10 gallon tank personally. You could return the Danios and get some kind of smaller Tetra or Rasbora like a Harlequin Rasbora.

Do they usually take fish back? We have had the Zebra's over a month.

I have kept guppies and danios together in the past, though in a 55 gallon rather than a 10. If the other three guppies look fine then it's possible that it wasn't necessarily the zebra danios that killed the guppy; sometimes you just get a bad fish and it dies on you, and then the other fish may pick at it. Did you actually see the zebra danios go and take down the guppy, or just nipping at a dead body? Fish don't usually let dead bodies go to waste, but it doesn't mean that they actually killed the fish. If this is the case there really isn't a problem, just bad luck in buying a fish that was going to die on you the next day.

Fish stores usually do take fishes, but if you're going to do this you just might want to call them up and check with the particular store. Usually I buy and trade back to the small stores, not the big chains.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Early this morning I noticed the guppy that later died was swimming around with no tail. The guppy that died was the least active of the bunch even at the pet store, but my son loved the color and really wanted that one. one of the other guppies is missing the top half of it's tail this morning also, and he looked pretty healthy. I guess we'll just wait and see.

I think that you should only keep the Danios & return all the other fish back. In a 10 gal. tank, you must be extra careful with the water quality & never overcrowd.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Everything looks good this morning. No more fin nipping. Will the tail of the guppy they were nipping at grow back?

Yes, it will grow back slowly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

get some melafix and dose as suggested...

this usually helps the fins to grow back more quickly, more healthily and will prevent bacterial infection!

be careful with that many fish in one tanks though and NEVER buy a fish that isnt very active as usually it is not as healthy regardless of color...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

before you buy any fish, you need to make sure it is healthy as well as the fish around it, and make sure you look closely for diseases like it, because if it gets into your tank, its not pretty! Good luck

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....